Wright Inquiry Focuses On $5.95 Paperback

June 12, 1988|By RICHARD L. BERKE, The New York Times

FORT WORTH, Tex. -- At the center of an ethical storm surrounding House Speaker Jim Wright is a modest-sized book written by the Democratic leader and bought in bulk by longtime supporters to benefit him financially.

One friend of Wright`s in Fort Worth said he bought $6,000 worth of the paperbacks at $5.95 apiece. The friend, S. Gene Payte, a developer, said he did so to help Wright without violating federal election laws. Those laws allowed him to contribute no more than $1,000 to the speaker`s congressional campaign.

``I was just trying to make a contribution to Jim`s income,`` said Payte, who has known Wright since 1954. ``And I couldn`t give him any money. There are rules against that. So I bought his book.``

Another friend, Gene Wood, said that to ``help Jim,`` he bought $1,000 worth of the books because he, too, wanted to go beyond the $1,000 contribution he had already made to Wright`s campaign fund.

The publication arrangement for the book, Reflections of a Public Man, is one of several aspects of Wright`s conduct that the House ethics committee, responding to Republican complaints, said on Friday that it would investigate.

Publisher William Carlos Mooresaid on Friday that he conceived it in 1984 as ``a vehicle to show the world this man and for him to make a buck and me to make a buck.``

Moore, a back-slapping, gregarious consultant to many Democratic campaigns in Texas and one of Wright`s key political operatives, said he was surprised by the attention on what he called a ``two-bit book with very little fresh stuff.``

The book, which at 117 pages could be mistaken for a pamphlet, contains an assortment of Wright`s speeches and observations, often less than a page each.

The committee is investigating whether Wright was paid excessive royalties and whether they were in return for his giving substantial campaign business to the book`s publisher. The panel is also looking into whether Wright used a staff member`s taxpayer-paid time at work to help edit the book.

Wright denied the allegations in a long statement on Friday and said he regarded Moore ``as a friend`` who had ``assisted effectively`` in seven campaigns.

Moore said that more than half of the 17,000 copies printed were sold in bulk quantities to a handful of Wright`s supporters, such as Payte and Wood.

Donald J. Simon, a Washington lawyer who specializes in campaign finance, said that buying the book in bulk would probably not violate election laws unless it could be proved that the money went to Wright`s congressional campaign.